The health care workforce shortage and growing evidence base of peer recovery support services (PRSS), which are provided by people with lived experience of substance use disorders or mental health conditions, raise the question of how PRSS can be expanded and sustainably financed moving forward. Westat recently prepared a report for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Financing Peer Recovery Support: Opportunities to Enhance the Substance Use Disorder Peer Workforce (PDF), which investigates this issue. Westat staff who contributed to this report include Jennifer Caputo PhD, Shoma Ghose PhD, Mustafa Karakus PhD, Janice Machado MBA, Chris Manglitz MPS, Elian Rosenfeld PhD, and Jack Vallentine.
This report surveys federal grant program and state Medicaid program regulations to assess the feasibility of expanding PRSS. The report also highlights an expert panel convened by SAMHSA in May 2023, which emphasized the challenge of implementing PRSS with fee-for-service financing and solutions to address this challenge.
For more behavioral health innovative financing information, check out other reports and presentations Westat completed at the Center for Financing Reform and Innovation (CFRI) website.
